Fernando Alonso demands Ferrari improvement

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the drivers' title with Renault in 2005 and 2006.

Story highlights

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari must do better in 2013 Formula One season

Alonso lost out to 2012 drivers' champion Sebastian Vettel by three points

The Spaniard drove the new Ferrari F138 for the first time in Jerez on Tuesday

The 2013 F1 season begins with the Australian Grand Prix on March 17

Fernando Alonso has urged Ferrari to improve ahead of the 2013 Formula One season, labeling the Italian team's performance in last year's championship unbefitting of the sport's most successful constructor.

Last season two-time world champion Alonso finished just three points behind eventual title winner Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, but the Spaniard insists Ferrari must do more if the team is to challenge for the drivers' title.

"At the end of the year we were quite far from Red Bull and McLaren," the 31-year-old Spaniard told Formula One's official website after his first run out in the team's new F138 car at a preseason testing event in Barcelona.

"We've been in a group with Force India, behind Lotus and Sauber. We cannot belong to this group -- we know that. We need to be in the group of the leaders and for this we need to do a good job this winter."

The 2013 season gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix on March 17 and Alonso has urged Ferrari to arrive at the Melbourne race ready to challenge the dominance of Red Bull, who have now won the drivers' and constructors' titles for three consecutive years.

"We need to improve from where we were last year because obviously it was not enough -- we finished second and we want to finish first," added the former McLaren driver.

"So our immediate goal to improve in the first half of the year shouldn't be that difficult. We are relatively confident."